Skip to main content

Table 1 Child and household characteristics at baseline in Gqeberha, South African component of the KaziAfya project

From: Impact of a school-based health intervention program on body composition among South African primary schoolchildren: results from the KaziAfya cluster-randomized controlled trial

By treatment group

Intervention group

Physical activity, N class clusters = 11 (n children = 347)

Physical activity + MMNS, N class clusters = 11 (n children = 297)

MMNS, N class clusters = 11 (n children = 325)

Placebo, N class clusters = 12 (n children = 335)

Child characteristics

M (95% CI)

M (95% CI)

M (95% CI)

M (95% CI)

 Age at entry [means in years]

8.75 (8.65–8.94)

8.34 (8.18–8.50)

8.18 (8.02–8.33)

7.96 (7.81–8.11)

 Boys [n (%)]

169 (49.4)

151 (51.2)

171 (53.6)

176 (54.2)

Anthropometric measures at baseline

 Height

127.38 (126.4–128.3)

124.96 (123.9–126.0)

123.71 (122.7–124.7)

122.67 (121.6–123.6)

 Weight

27.33 (26.61–28.05)

25.55 (24.77–26.33)

24.82 (24.07–25.57)

23.76 (23.76–24.50)

 BMI

16.45 (16.17–16.74)

16.13 (15.83–16.43)

16.05 (15.76–16.33)

15.83 (15.34–15.91)

Categories of malnutrition at baseline

n (%)

n (%)

n (%)

n (%)

 Overweight or obesea,b

53 (16.6)

46 (16.3)

49 (16.0)

36 (12.4)

 Stuntedc

29 (9.1)

27 (9.5)

25 (8.1)

30 (9.3)

Body composition

M (95% CI)

M (95% CI)

M (95% CI)

M (95% CI)

 Overall fat mass (kg)

6.66 (6.32–6.99)

5.89 (5.52–6.25)

5.85 (5.05–6.21)

5.33 (4.98–5.68)

 Overall fat-free mass (kg)

20.67 (20.23–21.12)

19.66 (19.18–20.15)

18.96 (18.50–19.43)

18.44 (17.97–18.90)

 Truncal fat mass (kg)

3.12 (12.96–3.28)

2.77 (2.60–2.94)

2.78 (2.63–2.95)

2.55 (2.40–2.71)

 Truncal fat-free mass (kg)

13.00 (12.78–13.21)

12.56 (12.32–12.80)

12.27 (12.04–12.50)

12.01 (11.80–12.23)

Overall SES indexd

n (%)

n (%)

n (%)

n (%)

 Category 1

101 (29.2)

106 (35.7)

107 (32.9)

120 (35.8)

 Category 2

150 (43.2)

131 (44.1)

134 (41.2)

137 (41.0)

 Category 3

96 (27.7)

60 (20.2)

84 (25.8)

78 (23.3)

  1. aOverweight: BMI z-score > + 1 SD (85th to 94th percentile)
  2. bObese: > + 2 SD (equal to or greater than the 95th percentile)
  3. cStunting: HAZ < − 2 SD
  4. dSES socio-economic status. SES categories are constructed by dividing the sum of household characteristics and durable assets by terciles across the entire sample